News Flash: May 27, 2012

Congrats to Alicia Marie, winner of a copy of Kimberly Brock’s The River Witch!

Are you a soon-to-be-published first time author, interested in being a Debutante? Well, polish your tiara and start hunting for those old ball gowns because next weekend we’ll be announcing the start of our search for the Deb Class of 2013! Details to come–so be sure and stay tuned!

From the 2012 Debs…

Deb Joanne was featured this week on Ellie Rollins’s blog, talking about the strong fictional heroine who influenced her writing. I’m sure you can figure out who she discussed. Hint: she’s a redheaded Canadian. Check out the post here.

Deb Erika just sent back her corrected page proofs for her next novel THE MERMAID COLLECTOR and is still angsting over that one word on Page 210…

Deb Linda will be anxiously nibbling her nails while she waits to see how her second book in the Ciel Halligan, Aura Adaptor series (or whatever the heck it winds up being called) is received by her agent, and then editor. She’s discovering this part never gets any easier.

Deb Rachel will be reading at the Buffalo Grove school district book fair in Lincolnshire next Saturday, June 2 at 3 pm. If you’re in the Chicago ‘burbs, come say hi!

Past Deb News

Deb Kristina received a wonderful review for her upcoming release, KEEPSAKE, from The Smoking Poet. Read it here!

Deb Sarah Jio has a moved into a new house and would love your suggestions for a name, in the spirit of Jane Green’s Figless Manor! Stop by and offer your ideas here!

Deb Friends

Deb Guest Kelly O’Connor McNees revealed her cover for her upcoming release IN NEED OF A GOOD WIFE!

Deb Dish -It’s Desert Island Time, ladies: You can bring 3 books, which ones do you pick?

Deb Joanne – Jenny Crusie’s BET ME, Guy Gavriel Kay’s THE SUMMER TREE Trilogy (which is packaged as one book, so it only counts as one) and The Bible – I guess if I’m on an island and get bored with the others, I can finally read it and see what all the fuss is about.

Deb Erika thinks this is SUCH a tough one. Because the books I cherish most aren’t necessarily the ones I would choose to comfort me on an island. I mean, one has to consider the mood, yes? One would want something light, escapist! I would choose Alice Hoffman’s TURTLE MOON, Peter Benchley’s JAWS (because I want to be grateful to be stuck on the island, yes?) and FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER because if you have to escape, why not go to the Met?

Deb Molly I’m an incredibly fast reader, so I’m going for sheer bulk here, in order to keep myself occupied for more than three days. 🙂 Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, because it’s long been one of my favorite (and it’s also just long!) Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, because one of my favorite teachers once suggested I take a year to read Proust, and so far I haven’t been able to find a spare year to do so. And the giant, leatherbound Complete Works of Shakespeare my father gave me years and years ago, because if I’m stuck on that island for long, I’ll start memorizing soliloqueys to entertain myself.

Deb Linda Ack! Can’t I just take a solar-powered e-book reader instead? (Do they make those yet? Somebody should really get on it.) I would load that sucker up with everything from my beloved Gabaldon books to Stephen Hawking’s A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME. And I’d be sure to include a primer on surviving in the wild.

Deb Rachel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, because it’s long and there are so many layers. I could probably unearth a new clue or unravel more hidden meaning upon each reading. The Things They Carried, because it’s my favorite book and makes me want to tell stories, and Little Women, because it’s a comfort novel, and I’d need that. (Should I have said something more clever like a survival handbook? Maybe.)

OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon. It was the most ambitious, skilled, and imaginative first novel I’d ever read, and I found that so inspiring as a writer. At first I tried to write in that same vein, but eventually found my voice to be wildly different. But I loved hearing Gabaldon say that she didn’t worry about what genre she was writing, she just wrote what she wanted to her level best, and decided to figure out what it was later. I was able to apply that thought directly to my work and the result was a totally different urban fantasy than anything that was out there at the time. So I owe her a sincere debt of gratitude for that.

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